Dancing with wigs and fancy dresses. It’s a big deal.

story and photos by Joel Rafkin

The click-clack and stomping sounds of dancing feet and accordion music filled the air as more than 270 dancers from 28 schools took to the stage to compete in the Arkansas River Valley Feis (pronounced fesh) on Saturday at the Fort Smith Convention Center.

The event was hosted by the McCafferty School of Irish Dance in conjunction with the Fort Smith Irish Dance Council.

This is the fourth year for the event but the first time it has been called the River Valley Feis. Prior competitions were named Ozark Mountain Feis which has now become a separate competition located in Branson.

Most competitors came from the south-central area, within a five-hour drive of Fort Smith, but the event was open to anyone, said Event Chair Susan Fiori. About 75 of the participants were from the McCafferty School of Irish Dance which has studios in Fort Smith, Fayetteville and Little Rock.

"We’re a tiny little school in the big Irish dancing world and we’ve had a lot of success," said Fiori, whose daughter participated in Irish dancing when she was younger.

The competition is divided into categories of dance and then subdivided by experience level. Dancers as young as age 5 can participate. There is no upper age limit. Depending on the dance, either soft or hard shoes are worn. Figure dancing (group dances), reel, light jig, single jig and slip jig (girls and women only) are all danced with soft shoes. Treble jig, hornpipe and traditional set feature hard shoes. Preliminary open solo and preliminary open championship categories consist of multiple dance styles (from the aforementioned) and as such, are danced with either shoe type.

Irish step dancers start out in the "beginner" category and proceed through the ranks of advanced beginner, novice, prize winner, preliminary champion and champion. Beginners only dance the soft shoe dances. Promotion is typically based on winning first place in competition however, instructor discretion also plays a role, Fiori said.

Trophies and medals are awarded to roughly the top 50% of the competitors. Judges for the competition were Veronica McAleer McCrea of Delaware, Kerry Kelly Oster of New York and Maureen Greene-O’Leary of Massachusetts.

A traditional music competition featuring fiddle, violin and voice has been a staple in past Feiseanna. This year an art category and soda bread category were added. Soda bread is a quick bread made with baking soda instead of yeast. The baking soda reacts with the lactic acid in the buttermilk to form bubbles of carbon dioxide, hence the name.

Dr. Ray Wallace, Ireland native and provost of the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith, judged the soda bread competition. Alma Intermediate School art instructor Greer Farris judged the art competition.